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Itaipu Binacional presented to members of UNESCO’s HELP (Hydrology for the Environment, Life and Policy) Program free software-based geoprocessing solutions it has been developing for watershed management. The topic was addressed by Cícero Bley, Itaipu’s Renewable Energy superintendent and coordinator of the International Hydroinformatics Center, in Istanbul, Turkey, at the 5th World Water Forum. Pedro Domanickzy, the Paraguayan IHC coordinator, also attended the event.

According to Bley, geoprocessing has been highlighted in the forum’s program because there is a widespread view among water resource managers that it is necessary to decode the real world into data that is easily accessible within the virtual world.

“From then on, managers are able to make definitive decisions on what to do and how to do it”, said the IHC coordinator, who spoke to an audience of about 50 experts in the field of water resources, especially from Asia, Africa and North America. “We made excellent contacts with Thailand”, he highlighted.

The main tool presented by Bley is a software created by Itaipu that enables an accurate diagnosis of the environmental situation on each farm located in a watershed. The methodology interested Unesco, which in collaboration with the binational company has created the International Hydroinformatics Center to spread the technology to other locations in South America as part of the International Hydrological Program, the main international water conservation-oriented initiative and which is led by Unesco.

To Bley, the 5th edition of the World Water Forum has come a long way since the previous edition in Mexico in 2006. An evolution that encompasses not only the number of attendees and countries but also the event’s visibility and the scope of its proposals.

“Many things that looked like an utopia in 2006 are now coming into life, like the ability to turn water into a protocol, similar to what was done for the atmosphere in Kyoto. Another major notion now is our view of the multiple uses of water: for food production, as a source of power, and a factor of social welfare”.